The present invention relates to containers for premium/promotional items or gifts presented to customers with a purchased item/at the point of purchase. The invention is particularly applicable to children and collectors who frequent xe2x80x98fast foodxe2x80x99 restaurants.
It is common for restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, to supply a gift or prize item to customers with a purchase as a way of adding value to the purchase. Such promotional gifts or premiums are, typically, licensed copyrighted characters intended to appeal to children.
In fast food restaurants, beverages are commonly dispensed in cups of waxed paper or plastic and a molded lid is removably affixed to the top of the cup to minimize spillage. Such beverage cups and lids are both disposable and stackable minimizing dispensing and storage costs. However, the gift items or premiums are typically packaged in polybags or boxes handed out separately from the beverage, which requires an additional, inconvenient handling step at the point of sale, significantly slowing dispensing time at busy periods. Furthermore, most of the packages are not readily stackable for compact storage and, typically are not of sufficiently low manufacturing cost to be consider the container economically disposable.
In an attempt to overcome the above disadvantage U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,288 issued in 2001 Nava teaches a container comprising a clear cover releasably assembled to a base to provide between them a closed receptacle for a premium toy figurine or model (such as a celebrity baseball player) with the assembly forming a lid for the beverage container mounting the toy thereon for handing over to the customer at the point of sale as a single item.
However, the containers are not adapted to be stacked on top of each other as required for compact storage and convenient handling prior to application to the filled beverage cup as, although the underside of the container is recessed, the cover is designed to protrude upwards in a bulky and irregular fashion following approximately the profile of the toy figurine, for maximum visibility thereof. In addition, in attempting to grasp the toy, a child must separate the cover and base which can result in inadvertent spillage as the container also seals the cup filled with beverage.
Furthermore, no provision is made for containing also a card describing the attributes of the celebrity which is desirably of coaster size. In fact, the prior patent teaches that a straw should extend through the cover and base of the container adjacent the receptacle for the figurine which would not be possible if such card were located in the cover as it would extend across the opening.
It Is an object of the invention to provide a container for a promotional or premium item which does not require to be handed to a customer separately from a purchased beverage but can be handed to the customer with a filled beverage cup as a single unit.
It is another object of the invention to provide a container for a promotional item which can be manufactured at low cost by conventional mass production techniques so as to be considered disposable.
It is a further object of the invention to provide containers for promotional items which containers can be readily stacked on each other for compact storage and convenient handling and dispensing.
A further object of the invention is to provide a container for a promotional item which provides a compartment accommodating a collectible printed card associated with the item.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a container for holding a gift or prize item wherein the item may be removed without disturbing the lid of the beverage cup.
According to one aspect, the invention provides a container for holding a gift item with a three dimensional or solid body which is mounted removably to a beverage cup for handling as a single unit, comprising a clear, plastic cover member molded as one piece with a flat, round top panel and a downwardly divergent tubular side wall depending from a peripheral edge thereof; a first plastic base member molded as one piece with a round, upper panel and a downwardly divergent tubular side wall depending from a peripheral edge thereof, the upper panel being formed with a well containing the gift item entirely therein; means extending around respective lower peripheries of the respective side walls of the cover member and first base member, interengagable as a press fit, for releasably assembling the cover member and the base member together with the base member well received inside the cover in telescoped relation and with the top panel of the cover extending across the well so that the cover member and the first base member provide between them a closed receptacle for the gift item; and, a further base member having a round panel formed with a card receiving recess and means on a periphery of the further base member interengagable as a press fit with the first base member for releasably retaining the further base member assembled to a bottom of the first base member to provide a card receiving compartment between a bottom of the well and the panel of the base member and interengagable as a press fit with a rim of a lid of a beverage cup to mount the container releasably thereon.
Preferably, the means for retaining the card in the recess are integrally formed on the further base member and, the card retaining means comprise a plurality of undercut detents at a perimeter of the recess enabling the card to be inserted into the recess in a snap action.
It is further preferred that, the means for releasably retaining the further base member on the beverage cup is formed on a flange which depends from a periphery of the panel of the further base member snap and forms with the panel a flat topped stacking recess receiving the top panel of a cover member of another container assembly to in stacking relation.